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about 3 weeks ago I woke up one morning and decided that after 20 years of working on various Mercedes models, it might be time (in the remainder of my life) to devote to an American car. I immediatelly thought of the Packard and it had to be pre-war. Over the course the last 10 years I have been learning html, website applications and developed 2 website clubs devoted to Mercedes 1931 to 1961.

After extensive searching, I finally found a 36 project car around Toledo, Ohio and went up to get it. The image attached in this post is one from a blackberry I took after we rolled Junior out of the garage. The Owner had it stored in his garage for 13 years, and had purchased it from an Estate in Saginaw, Michigan. He basically had too many projects and like most of us, wanted to see it get a good home and attention.

I bought the car not knowing about the engine condition, but it appeared 98% complete. The interior was toast, and had standard amounts of rust.

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After getting the project in my shop in Frankfort, Kentucky, I began to remove the interior, front fenders and grill. Also wanted to check the condition of the engine, so removed the head and soaked the cylinders.

This past wednesday, I finally removed the front clip, and put a torque wrench on the crank nut and turned (counterclockwise) the engine by hand. I was elated that the engine was not totally frozen, which was inspiring to save the original engine in tact and proceed from there.

Today, I hope to begin cleaning the engine and area and eventually try to crank it over with the battery and starter.

James,

It'll be good to follow the progress on "Fred". Make sure to take plenty of pic's to post as you go along and keep as updated.

And a question. Your Avatar pic, does it have some special signifigance? If so, could you please fill us in?

well looks like I'm a month behind on responses, but I have been monitoring this wonderful packard forum daily.

Been working on the Packard every chance and have images to post, when I get a chance and on the right computer.

There is no significance to the avatar, other than I enjoy oldtime pictures of families with cars, etc....

James,

Looking forward to seeing your pic's and hearing about what you've been doing and how it's going on the '36.

Looking forward to your progress. Working on a 36 120B convt. coupe myself. Glad to hear yours is all there. Still looking for a few parts myself

Any progress?? Pictures??

Here's some images, a few taken with a blackberry inside, so not that great, but you get the idea.

I decided on an original "bonnie" grey (a greenish grey) for the body color with black fenders. John, an old mustang guy, who co shares one of my units in kentucky (which has a paint booth) is painting the car for a very reduced price, as a favor to me. I knew he would do a good job taking it down to bare metal, priming, wet sanding, etc....the final coat is being shot tomorrow. Meanwhile I am working on de-rusting and painting the frame, attending to the brakes, new double flare lines, new gas line, new body support rubber. The tank is already clean inside, but the trasmitter needs work. New straps and bolts for the tank. About 2 months ago, after removing doors, and the body bolts, we removed the shell with an engine hoist (putting a 4x4 across the middle door pillar structure. I held up the back end while we rolled it. Its a dirty and dusty job working on the frame, so happy that the shell is in another unit and paint booth.

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A while back I replaced the timing chain for general purposes and timed the engine with the markers inside the bell housing after removing the starter. New engine mounts.

I started originally painting the engine grey, but after we decided on the body color I made a change to an un original blue as a contrast. I'm not found of green so OEM colors were not in my forecast, except the body color which is an original packard formula from mid 30s. The engine blue paint is a Cadillac 1939 color (you don't see it on many cars). I bought lots of new and used parts waiting to be installed at the right time....i.e. new dual action fuel pump (relative similar price to a rebuild kit), 6 volt alternator, I rebuilt the water pump (6 hours), rebuilt the master cylinder, rebuilding the carb, etc.. I bought some 18 gauge floor pans from midland and john (my co-renter) is welding in a new floor for me. Much of it was solid, but rusty and decided it would be nice to start with fresh metal. The Oak (?) base is in excellent shape. Overall the body was in good condition and frame; just needs lots of tlc and elbow grease.

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the engine turned over when I bought the car, which all I had hoped. After getting it back in Kentucky, I removed the head, side plates, and cleaned up everything, got the pistons clean and the cylinder walls and rings, etc...looked fine and valves working (2 intake/2 exhaust) like they should. haven't fired it up yet, but taking a chance on it when I get the gas lines in and everything back on the engine (even with newly painted body shell back on) we can do a lot of testing. New muffler system coming tomorrow. Replaced the engine gasket, new head nuts, etc...cleaned up the oil pan and gasket, side valve gaskets, pulled the drive shaft and checked the U-joints and regreased. Pulled the water jacket tube and its in great shape.

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